The following is a sample from a “word release” prayer writing exercise from June 18, 2011, where the leader spoke out preselected words periodically for the writers to incorporate. Everyone was first instructed to write their favorite name for God at the top, and then begin their prayer. Used by permission.
Leader reads the plain text, group reads response in bold.
Jesus, my brother,
Sow across the sky like an airplane over boundless earth
Dropping potential like leaflets of peace indicate the end of wars.
Sow across mountain and beaches, deserts, jungles, tundra and prairies
Rolling your thunder into the earth like dough, rising with yeast
Becoming bread of life.
Rest upon the water, crushed of wars,
out of bloody streams you bring wine, sweet, new,
the tannins a jewel in the deltas and pearls in the gulfs,
restoring,
wash away decay and pollution,
restoring life in the marshes and bogs.
The swamps rise to meet you and glory in your name, brother,
as you pass over the whole earth in your living kindness.
Accept my prayer today.
I dream of a planet of art without propaganda and billboards of truth,
advertising nothing but connection with each other.
I dream of a river flushing selfishness to the seas, freezing into a berg and drifting to the unknown arctic never to be seen again.
I dream a king so powerful and humble that each servant grows like a spreading oak,
standing strong and growing to their full height.
I dream a church of wonder, surprise, waiting with suspended breath for creation renewed, for dances with stars, for the songs of the planets to reach the earth telling your greatness even afar, at such distance you’ve flown and sown and grown and been known.
Accept my prayer today.
Jesus my priest and king after the order of Melchizedek,
Dive now in your mighty flying craft and retake the world and make your dreams reality.
Come accept my prayer today.
Jesus my wisdom and shelter,
hold me in the palm of your hand.
My sailboat struggles against sky and wave and I know so little of sailing and of future. Brilliant sun, softer moon, and Northern star are only glimpses of your direction,
East and West, southern heat, alive with the scents of bougainvillea and curry, flour and corn tortillas,
draw and quarter me as I hang on to what’s called of me right at home.
Be my anchor, be my travel, be my sense of smell,
be my seven wonders of the world, and make me alive.
Accept my prayer today.
Over the fields of ripening corn and beans, mint, hops, orchards of apples and peaches, berry farms and even over tended golf courses your breath infuses the world.
Meditation
Prayer for others
Benediction
You are oxygen.
You are blood in the aorta
you are breath,
you are pulse
you are life abundant.
You are silent presence
you are all open spaces and endless vistas
all virility and all healing.
You are all barren landscapes pointing to the creator,
you are the lushness of all creation growing in the cracks of cities,
in the cracks of rocks, in the cracks of sidewalks, the cracks of deserts,
the cracks of dawn and dusk, growing.
Thank you! Accept my prayer today.
